


Nervous Systems

by scrawly_times



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Epilepsy, Epileptic Spy, M/M, Other, Seizures, Vomiting, everyone's here but i'm not tagging them they're side chars, nonbinary Pyro, yep u read that right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-22 12:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15582027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrawly_times/pseuds/scrawly_times
Summary: "Spy was shaking and writhing, limbs stiff and twisting and untwisting into a disturbing parody of a fetal position."OrIn which Spy has epilepsy, as in the realistic kind, and is (normally) very good at hiding it. Inspired by my roommate who HAS epilepsy and takes joy in setting people straight on how seizures work outside of media.





	1. The Initial Panic

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I should really stop coming up with new fics but in my defense I work on this one on and off all the time. Usually when my friend has a seizure I sit and babble about headcanons and random shit so he has words to focus on, then when he's up and going we chill and chat about it. 
> 
> I'm not an expert on epilepsy though, and EVERYONE can have wildly different reactions, symptoms, triggers, and recovery times. This is primarily a fic to get my musings out there and also to share some feels... also play with Spy/Pyro as a ship
> 
> TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: obviously several possibly disturbing descriptions of seizures, along with some choking. It shouldn't be anything too graphic just yet.

Spy was having a bad week.

They usually held a very strong defense against BLU team, if not outright winning against them, but lately RED was struggling. The team did _not_ appreciate their drop in ability. Everyone was stressed and snapping at everyone _else_ for minor infractions.

Spy’s job was getting harder too. While BLU was somehow a mite _smarter_ than RED, that didn't mean they were _better._ Usually Spy had a minimum of trouble with them. His problems usually amounted to difficulty getting around the map fast enough.

But BLU’s Pyro was gunning for him. After the third time in respawn for the day Spy accepted that he was just going to have a shitty day. Which turned into most of the week of being hunted down.

At least his Pyro seemed to catch on to his stress. They were dogging his path as often as they could, wandering aimlessly around to pretend they were on their own. Not like anyone truly questioned Pyro’s intentions.

To add on to Spy’s frustrations the Administrator gave him some off time tasks. Nothing truly difficult, but highly time consuming, and he had to keep them hidden from RED. Spy had his job solely on the fact that his... medical condition never happened in battle or impeded his duties. He couldn't allow himself _any_ slack with the Administrator or she would fire him in a heartbeat, skill or no.

Pyro seemed to notice he was starting to flag but everyone else was in too much of a bad mood to notice what miniscule signs of tiredness Spy gave off. Pyro followed Spy around base and kept quiet, just keeping an eye on him. Spy _would_ feel offended at the presumption but frankly he _felt_ like he'd have a seizure soon enough if everything didn't let up.

Despite feeling tired and wanting to curl up and have a nap then and there, Spy was still acting like he normally did and lounging around the mess hall during mealtimes. He usually used it as an opportunity to observe his teammates, but right now he mostly just pretended to keep an eye on everyone while relaxing.

He stood against a wall, cigarette in hand as Pyro hummed happily from the floor where they were playing with some sort of toy animals. Spy thought they might be melted plastic dinosaurs.

Despite his fear of the BLU counterpart, RED’s Pyro was rather companionable. It was nice to have company that didn't insist on speaking. And even though they spoke quite a lot, half the time Pyro didn't seem to realize or even care that Spy barely understood them.

Idly watching Pyro's soap opera of toys and their amusing sound effects, Spy was tired enough to let his guard down. This proved to be a mistake. He forgot that some of his teammates were dealing with the stress of their recent failures through juvenile behavior.

Scout slid up next to Spy surprisingly quietly, which should have been his first tip. He did notice Scout’s presence and was ready to tell him to fuck off.

Scout said something, Spy was tuning it out, but then clapped him on the shoulder. Something hard on the boy's palm had Spy reflexively reaching for his balisong on mere reflex-

A small electric shock jolted through him, making him jump. Stronger than any hand buzzer should be but not enough to give electric burns.

Spy felt dread pool in his stomach before the jolting in his body didn't stop and a wave of numbness crashed over his mind.

* * *

Scout hadn't expected to get that close to Spy, truthfully. He thought the spook would've noticed right away and called him out on his prank. Instead he'd actually managed to clip him on the shoulder with his hand buzzer!

Scout guffawed loudly at his success, already launching away as fast as he could go. He knew from experience that Spy didn't appreciate his pranks.

But… Spy jumped really hard at the shock. If he'd been looking, he would've noticed Spy's face go completely empty and his eyes roll up in his head. When Scout _did_ look back to see the results he saw Spy tipping over, jumping like he was still being shocked.

The others were aware of Scout’s pranks and looked up in resignation to see what he'd done _this time._ Seeing Spy falling over like a post freaked _everyone_ out.

Pyro finally noticed what was going on and let out a loud noise of horror before diving to catch him before he hit his head.

“Blimey, what did ya do to the spook?” Sniper half stood up, chair screeching.

“Just a hand buzzer!” Scout yelped, stumbling midrun to turn back to Spy. “I swear! It's not even dat strong!” He mayyybe fibbed a bit on that but it _wasn't_ strong enough to hurt anyone, he'd checked! On _himself!_ He liked pranks but he always made sure they weren’t actually going to hurt people!

Spy was shaking and writhing, limbs stiff and twisting and untwisting into a disturbing parody of a fetal position. Pyro had lowered him to the floor and was now setting his head on their lap and making worried noises.

Demo bellowed for Medic immediately, causing all of them to flinch and cover their ears.

* * *

 

_Four years ago_

“What do you want?” Spy muttered to the odd _creature_ that was supposed to be their Pyrotechnics expert.

It tilted its head at him almost curiously, blank mask not showing any other emotion. Spy didn’t like being unable to get a read on people. He heard what may have been muffled words come from the mask.

“I don’t have time for this.” Spy said lowly, fighting the wave of heaviness he could feel trying to bowl over him. He shoved past the Pyro and on through the hallways.

There wasn’t time to get to the Medic, nor did he trust the man. He didn’t have enough time to get to his bedroom or smoking room either. They were too far away and he could already feel his limbs slowing down and not responding. He didn’t want to risk trying to hurry to one and one of his teammates seeing him stumbling around like that drunk of a Demolitions ‘Expert’.

Despite his reservations Spy had no choice. His thoughts were already getting hard to follow. He ducked around a corner and disappeared into a dusty broom closet.

He didn’t have time to do anything else. As soon as he entered the closet everything went dark.

On the other side of the cracked door, dark lenses peered down at the Spy curiously.

Pyro knew the fancy man didn’t really like them. Most people didn’t, and Pyro was okay with that. They knew some nice people did exist - like Engie! - and that was fine by them.

But Pyro was still worried about the fancily dressed man. He was good at trying to look okay but Pyro’s mask covered a lot more than his. His face had been rapidly paling even while Pyro watched him and he sounded _dull._ They’d tried asking what was wrong but Spy had just brushed them off tiredly.

They followed him down the hallway mostly out of curiosity and saw him disappear into a cleaning closet. They wondered why, since he wasn’t the type to clean, but then the door slammed shut clumsily and banged back open a crack.

Pyro had little to no sense of privacy so had no compunctions with peeking in to see what was happening. What they saw confused them.

It looked like Spy was dancing, almost, if he was dancing very badly while laying on the floor. When Pyro kept watching they eventually decided that it didn’t look like dancing. It looked more like Spy was a balloon, and the strings tied to his limbs were being pulled and jerked around by a mean person. It didn’t look very nice and they could hear Spy making choked noises like he couldn’t breathe too in between shuffling sounds.

Pyro watched Spy do this for several minutes before slowly the jerking stopped and his breathing evened out a little more, though it still sounded choked.

“Py? Where’d ya go ya lil firebug?” Engie’s voice sounded down the hallway and Pyro perked up happily. They skipped off towards him, thoughts of the Spy leaving their mind quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So not everyone's epilepsy is triggered by flashing lights. Sometimes it can be triggered by exhaustion, usually very severe exhaustion. Sometimes strong emotions or panic can cause them. Spy's case is primarily tiredness. But yes, an electric shock on an epileptic is about the same as throwing a match into a pool of gas. It's going to go up in a horribly epic way. And the aftermath is going to be even WORSE.


	2. Things Get Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title says all. 
> 
> WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: obviously a seizure. somewhat descriptive scene with throwing up. some needles and careless injections.
> 
> heavy abuse of phonetics to emphasize accents, lol. also probably bad use of American and French sign languages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I'm glad to see people interested in this fic I admit I was expecting a little more feedback? But hey, no skin off my back, I have a couple friends who are excited to read as I write anyways, and I'm always still adding things. 
> 
> Take note of throwing up in this chapter! I know it's a trigger for some people

_ Present  _

Medic was in the hallways headed towards the kitchen when he heard Demo’s yell. There was an edge of panic to it the Scotsman rarely had and Medic broke into a sprint without hesitation.

When he ran through the mess hall he assessed the situation in an instant, shoving aside his first jolt of fear seeing Spy on the ground. There was _ so much _ that could be wrong with  _ Spy down- _ He ignored his emotions and a mental switch flipped in his brain to push aside panic and focus on the clinical thought processes of training and planning.

Medic didn’t slow his sprint, diving to the floor to slide onto his knees by Spy’s head.

“Keep his head cushioned!” He yelled at Pyro, eyes going immediately to his watch and mentally noting the time. “Back up all of jou!” He barked up at the mercenaries crowded around them in fear. They’d barely even moved aside to let him in. “Give me room!”

Heavy, used to following Medic’s orders, immediately pushed all of them back several feet and crouched down behind Medic at a distance. “What does doktor need?” He said.

Medic was already going for Spy’s coat. “Remove all restrictive clothing,” He stated as if he were listing off the procedure in his head. His rubber gloves were giving him problems with the tiny buttons.

While he stripped his gloves off Heavy took the initiative and went ahead and ripped Spy’s coat open, ignoring buttons popping. He then did the same for Spy’s vest and dress shirt. Next Heavy undid his belt and pulled off his shoes and gloves, unsure how much counted as ‘restrictive’ clothing.

“Good!” Medic said, using his bare hands to check Spy’s pulse through his neck, since the rest of him was writhing and jerking too much to get a quick feel. 

Spy wasn’t breathing. 

Or well, he  _ was, _ but his chest muscles were constricting so much he couldn’t get in more than reflexive choked gasps in and out. Medic was concerned by this until he registered the low murmuring barely audible beneath the yelling and shouting of the others. Pyro was talking to Spy, even though Medic knew the Frenchman had no capability to understand it at the moment. He wasn’t even really conscious. But the murmuring seemed to help somewhat as Spy’s lungs forced in a ragged breath.

“I CANNOT FOCUZ!” He shrieked at the top of his lungs, voice cracking sharply. It cut through the yelling and finally got the others to shut up for a moment. “OUT! Anyvun who eez not HELPING ziz very zecond, LEAVE!”

There were instant protests but then Heavy growled threateningly and the Engineer forcefully herded them out.

Medic went to pull Spy’s mask off, hoping it could help some. Pyro made a… very  _ intense _ noise of disapproval, giving Medic what was probably a threatening look under their mask.

“I need to check hiz temperature, Pyro, und it counts as restrictive clothing in zis situation!” Medic snapped out as professionally as he could. “I haf zeen Herr Zpy’z vace before.” While Pyro thought that over (easier to cooperate with Pyro than risk them having a meltdown) Medic multitasked. “HERR ENGINEER! Vhat trigured ze zeuisure?!”

A minute later Engie appeared to finally get a coherent response from the group outside the mess hall and spoke at the door.

“Scout used a joke hand buzzer on him, s’posedly stronger’n a normal one but not meant to hurt, on his shoulder. Spy just toppled like a brick after.” Engie very obviously wanted to know what was going on or what they were going to do but was biting himself back. None of the others dared try push their way past Engineer. 

“I vill deal vith Zcout later.” There was some muttering from outside.

Pyro finally seemed to accept Medic’s reasoning for removing Spy’s mask, but shuffled around as much as they could without moving Spy’s head on their lap so they were hiding his face from the doorway. Heavy very clearly turned his head away politely as Pyro pulled it off themself and held onto it tightly. 

Spy’s face had lost all its little color and was paled dramatically, sweat beading on his skin from exertion. His eyes were rolled up in his head. Perhaps the creepiest thing was the way his facial muscles would twitch and seize in strange forms and expressions like the rest of his body.

His temperature seemed to run a little warm, which was usual at least for the amount of exertion the seizure was causing.

Medic took a moment to gather his thoughts and take a deep breath. As much as he needed to focus on Spy there was no point in leaving the others hanging. Having calmed himself a little bit, his accent cleared up a little. “Herr Spy is having a seizure. There is little worry at ze moment, do not fear, as long as ze seizure does not last longer than ten minutes.”

And knowing this seizure was possibly instigated by multiple triggers, Medic dearly hoped it did not come to that. 

* * *

 

_ Three and a half years ago _

Spy was not okay. He’d felt a light headache coming on all day, a slight fuzziness in his consciousness that indicated a seizure incoming. 

It wasn’t  _ impossible _ to hold a seizure back. It was difficult and exhausting, but he could do it. The problem was that he couldn’t do it forever. And while he did so he could hardly focus on anything else. Dark lenses followed him curiously throughout the day, as did the Medic’s annoyed and knowing gaze.

Having watched Spy’s clumsiness and distraction all day, Pyro noticed when Medic tried cornering him. Spy ended up having to cloak himself and run off. He just wasn’t capable of handling the confrontation at the time. Pyro easily followed the cloaked Spy through the base to a room that was dusty and rarely used.

Spy barely stumbled in through the door before Pyro heard the thump of his body hitting the floor. The door hadn’t even been closed. 

Now, at this point in time Pyro liked Spy. Of all the people on the team he seemed to understand them not wanting to share certain things. Like bathrooms! Spy didn’t like sharing a bathroom with the others. Pyro did not either. One time while Pyro was inside Scout had tried to open the door and come inside. 

When Pyro realized they had been ready to put Scout in the rainbows  fearfully angrily, but when they came out of the bathroom they’d found Spy spinning his balisong grouchily over Scout’s body. They had been confused until Spy pointed his knife at them.

“I will watch your door if you will watch mine.” 

At the time he said it meanly, but Pyro thought he was just annoyed he had to make Scout reappear in the white room. Nobody liked being in the white room. 

Both Pyro and Spy didn’t like other people watching them when they did private things. So when Spy fell down jerking again Pyro stepped inside the room and felt around the floor for invisible limbs. 

They dragged him fully inside and closed the door, making sure it was locked. They even barred it with some chairs to make sure nobody could come in. After that it took Pyro a while to think of what else to do. 

Spy was surely uncomfortable but Pyro didn’t want to leave him to go get blankets and pillows. At the very least, Pyro could hear him choking again and the painful thunking of his head hitting the hard floor.

Pyro sat down and scooted over until they found Spy’s head and pulled it up onto their lap, humming cheerfully to themself as they waited for Spy to stop.

It took a few minutes but he did, eventually. But then Pyro got a little worried. It was like Spy was asleep and Pyro couldn’t wake him up. He double checked though, like Engie had once told him, that Spy was still breathing, and he was. But Spy wouldn’t respond. 

Would they have to get Medic? Pyro didn't like Medic, and if Spy didn't want to go to Medic, they didn't want to bring him there. 

Pyro started talking to Spy, trying to get him to show some sign of being awake. Spy’s eyes were open but they were half-lidded and glazed over. Every now and then he’d very slowly blink.

Eventually, after several minutes of Pyro worrying, Spy’s eyelids twitched and his eyes moved a bit, looking around hazily.

Pyro exclaimed happily and Spy’s eyes twitched up at them. They tried to explain why they were there but Spy didn’t seem to understand. Of course that might have been because Spy didn’t seem to be able to do much more than move his eyes.

At the least Pyro’s talking didn’t seem to  _ hurt,  _ so they kept talking to Spy cheerily. 

Slowly,  _ very _ slowly, the rest of Spy’s body started to respond. Pyro watched him twitch fingers slowly until he could twitch all fingers one at a time. Next was his wrists and then  _ probably _ his feet, Pyro couldn’t tell with his shoes. It took half an hour before Spy could twitch all his limbs on command. But that was it. It didn’t look like he could do much more than that.

Spy eventually looked up at Pyro, eyes guarded and uncertain. Pyro hummed happily and asked if he needed anything. Of course, Spy didn’t seem to understand. Pyro sighed and slumped a bit.

Pyro made a small sign for “talking”, flapping his hands like a mouth, hoping Spy understood it. He blinked slowly but got it after a second, frowning under his mask.

Spy only made a deep grunting noise deep in his chest. He cleared his throat and tried again. The second try was a little louder, but still not any sort of words.

_ “Sign?” _ Pyro asked with their hands like Engie had been teaching them.

Spy couldn’t lift his hands up very high, but he did manage a clumsy phrase:  _ “A little.” _

Pyro nearly hurrayed in glee. Finally someone they could talk to! Even if he wasn’t very good at it, that was fine. Pyro was still learning it too! Sometimes even Engie had a hard time understanding them so it was nice to have another way to talk.

_ “What do you need?” _ Pyro asked very slowly, because Spy’s eyes were still really glazy and lidded weird like he was having a hard time thinking. Pyro felt like that sometimes so they felt bad for him. 

Spy made a motion pointing up and Pyro tilted their head, not quite understanding. Spy’s face tightened in a scowl that looked weird because his face wasn’t moving right either. 

_ “S. I. T.” _ He said slowly, visibly getting frustrated when his fingers weren’t doing what he wanted them to. 

Pyro ‘ah’ed and started trying to sit Spy up. He didn’t really have the strength to help them much but he at least was able to keep himself balanced a little. Pyro nearly dropped Spy a few times but they eventually dragged him over to the wall and propped him up against it.

“Tada!” Pyro said cheerfully, brushing off Spy’s suit a little. They knew he didn’t like it getting dirty and he’d kinda been laying on the ground for a while now. Spy’s face twitched oddly at that.

_ “Why?” _ Spy spelled out once he’d had a minute or two sitting up to pull himself together a bit.

_ “You’re my friend.” _ Pyro motioned cheerfully. It was kind of hard for them to sign with their gloves being so thick, but at least this phrase was definitely one they and Engie had practiced.

Spy made a  _ very _ weird face at that but then he sighed. The sigh kind of turned into a cough and Pyro frowned.

_ “Need ViolinNeedle?”  _

Spy blinked very nonplussed at them.

Oh! Right! That was what them and Engie had started calling Medic. They signed out the letters to Medic’s name instead and Spy’s eyebrows raised. He looked pretty amused once he realized what they’d given Medic for a sign name.

_ “No.” _ He said, making a negative grunt at the same time. At least his voice was a little louder! 

Pyro shrugged and nodded. They totally understood not wanting to be near Medic. He was scary and always wanted to poke them with stuff and asked questions that made Pyro… really fuzzy. In bad ways. And scary ways. 

_ “Need,” _ Spy began slowly.  _ “A smoke.” _

Pyro giggled and poked around until they found his cigarettes and could light one for him.

They kept the lighter to play with, but Spy didn’t seem to care. 

* * *

 

_ Present _

Ten minutes was rapidly approaching. It had been the longest ten minutes of Medic’s career.

“Pyro,” He began. “Do not lie in order to keep Herr Spy’s secrets.” Pyro looked up completely unbothered by the near accusation. “He does not have seizures zis long normally, am I correct?”

Pyro nodded slowly, a little reluctant to share but knowing this was getting serious.

_ “Scheiße.” _ Medic said below his breath. They were at the nine minute mark. He began to move. “Heavy!” Everyone in the doorway jumped and came to attention at the sudden shout. “Prepare to grab ze Zpy, ve are going to have to take him to my Medbay. Someone fetch a blanket!”  He yelled at the group in the door, partially to get them out of the way.

Medic immediately stood up, beginning to lecture Heavy on how he’d have to carry Spy. He couldn’t restrain Spy too much, or the Frenchman’s seizing could end up hurting himself somehow, but also Heavy could  _ not  _ risk dropping him. Luckily Heavy’s sheer size meant his arms would give the seizing enough room.

In a remarkably short period of time Scout bolted in and dropped a blanket nearby, frantically backpedaling before he got too close. The poor boy must have been filled with guilt for causing all of this. 

_ Good.  _ Better he know  _ now  _ that Medic was going to  _ use his spleen as a pincushion.  _

Heavy gently picked Spy up, wrapping him in the blanket as he went. Pyro  _ very _ reluctantly let him. They just made sure to toss a portion of the blanket over Spy’s face.

They did a very strange controlled speedwalk towards Medic’s office, Heavy trying to walk smoothly and swiftly while also trying to keep Spy from writhing right out of his arms. Medic had one of Spy’s wrists in a death grip keeping watch of his pulse. Pyro was directly on their heels and  _ way too close  _ but neither had the attention to shoo them away. They were all just lucky Engineer saw fit to get Scout running ahead and opening doors for them to make things easier.

When they were nearly to the medbay there was a wet choking noise amidst Spy’s choked breathing and Medic cursed. They actually had to stop and sit Spy down to make sure he was done throwing up and wasn’t choking on his own vomit before continuing on. Heavy, the blessed soul, barely even reacted as vomit dripped down his arms and on his shirt.

And then they were in the Medical Wing and Medic sprinted ahead, pointing towards the nearest bed. 

Heavy laid Spy down as gently as possible and listened as Medic rattled off directions. The German ran around the Medbay frantically looking for the right medicine and needle.

“Make sure he does not fall off ze bed! I am going to have to inject him with a neural relaxer to stop ze seizure before any brain damage happens. Jou vill haf to hold him zteady vor zis, Herr Heavy.”

It was difficult enough to just hold Spy at all without hurting the man during the seizure. Trying to hold him  _ down  _ while his muscles were spasming all over the place made Heavy cringe, because he was pretty sure he was hurting the tiny Frenchman. Pyro made distressed noises next to the bed. 

“Pyro! Get ze hell out of here!” Medic cursed, trying to make sure he had the right size needle. Ah fuck it, not like Spy would have a dearth of things to complain about after this anyways. A needle a size or two larger was the least of his concerns. “At ze least ztay out of ze vay!”

Medic drew the proper liquid into the needle, flicked it to get air out, and then stabbed Spy directly through his loosened suit into the crook of his elbow. 

It took a few minutes for the relaxer to go into effect before Spy’s jerking slowed down and finally stopped. Everyone in the room sighed in relief.

“Thirteen minutes, thirty seconds.” Medic stated darkly, reading off his watch. “I am going to  _ kill  _ zat little-”

“Doktor,” Heavy said clearly. “Little man will pay. Take care of little Spy now, da?”

Medic took a few deep breaths before the murderous gleam in his eyes faded a bit. “Ja, jou’re right, Heavy, oh-” Medic finally looked at him and realized the Russian had slowly drying vomit dripping down his front. “You’re covered in filth, there’s a shower right over there.” He waved a hand towards the medbay’s private bathroom tiredly. Heavy made sure Medic wouldn’t need him for anything else before nodding and going to do just that.

Now that the main rush of adrenaline was over, Medic felt like all the energy had been sucked right out of him.

“Herr Pyro?” Medic turned to them. They were already trying to shift Spy around to be more comfortable in the bed. Medic snorted a little. “He’s trained you vell.” Medic grinned a little and Pyro giggled. “Be sure to draw ze curtains shut. Since you’re so  _ adamant _ about helping, jou can help me clean him off and get him into a medical gown in case he has a follow up seizure.”

Pyro made a startled noise and made some hand motions, though Medic didn’t understand them. Fascinating! He wasn’t aware Pyro knew sign language! Though then again, they did avoid him at all costs normally. 

He could get the idea fairly easily from the panicked tone to the movements though.

“Ja, follow up seizures are a possibility. Especially with such an abnormal trigger und seizure.” Medic sighed and leaned against the bed. “At least, that  _ vas _ very out of the ordinary for ze Spy, right?” His eyes narrowed and Pyro nodded, though he got the feeling they were mostly humoring him. Medic huffed. “In any case, ze relaxer is not guaranteed to prevent seizures afterwards. Once it wears off it will not be of any use. Hopefully if he has another ve vill not have to sedate him again.” 

“Eh, Doc?” Engie’s voice came through the Medbay and they traded glances. Medic left the bed, pulling the curtains shut as he went and meeting the Engineer at the door.

“Yes, Herr Engineer?” Medic said patronizingly, showing his unhappiness with this  _ entire _ situation.

“We’re just wantin’ ta know if Spook’s gonna be alright.” Engie said seriously. He had obviously been voted as the spokesperson for the rest of the team. “And what exactly’s goin on, if you have anything you can tell us.”

“While normally I do not care about doctor patient confidentiality,” Medic started with amusement. “In zis case Herr Spy would, und I quote from ze Spy himself, “disembowel me with a paperclip” if I shared certain things with ze rest of RED.”

“Understandable,” Engineer nodded. “He’s a rather... personal fella.”

Medic nodded too and sighed. “I  _ can  _ tell you zat he had a seizure, though I’m sure that vas obvious. It vas an abnormal seizure due to ze fact that-” Medic’s lip curled dangerously in a snarl. “ _ Scout _ decided it vas a good idea to trigger a pre-existing condition, which iz all I can say on zat matter. It lasted longer than safe and in order to circumvent  _ brain damage _ I had to sedate him, which in itself iz not a preferable option. He may or may not have follow-up seizures due to it. Currently, I haf no idea.” 

Engie’s face was already the picture of seriousness but it grew darker the longer Medic went on. He took a deep breath and visibly calmed himself.

“Now ah know we’re all mighty pissed at Scout right now, but I think we should hold off before any of us do anythin. Spy should get the official say on any punishment here.” Engineer said reluctantly. 

“Oh not even him.” Medic said, having a sudden realization. “If Spy’s recovery period takes too long, he vill be unable to participate in ze next match.” Engineer’s eyes widened. “Which of course means zat ze cause of ze temporary loss of a teammate, Scout, vill face punishment from ze Administrator herself.” Medic’s eyes narrowed like a predator having spotted its prey, a dangerous grin on his face.

“That would be the most appropriate.” Engineer said grimly. “And if Spy’s up and about sooner, we’ll all have our own bones ta pick with the kid.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pyro is learning American Sign Language and Spy knows only a little bit of it, he mostly knows French Sign Language. Fortunately the different variants of sign language are usually pretty similar or have almost identical alphabets at the least. 
> 
> SOME LITTLE BITS ABOUT SEIZURES:   
> -there's a recovery period afterwards where the person has to essentially get their brains and bodies working again. It normally takes HOURS. My friend I get this information from has a MIRACULOUS recovery time in that he usually recovers in about thirty minutes. It's not out of the question to possibly take a day or two to completely recover. The worse the seizure, the longer recovery can potentially take.  
> -When someone has a seizure, calmly get them laying down on their side. Do not restrain them and make sure there's nothing they might hit. Here's when you need to remove tight articles of clothing like belts, loosen bras, remove shoes or bacelets, etcetera. The important thing is to TIME the seizure. If the person has a history of seizures please do not call an ambulance, just make sure to stick by them and help them out. But regardless of history or not if the seizure goes on for ten minutes get them to a medical professional stat.   
> -It's very common to lose control of bodily functions during a seizure. Just make sure they aren't choking and try to remind them to breathe, breathe in and out loudly in example if you have to, they won't have any consciousness or memory of it but it seems to help.   
> -It is indeed possible to "hold back" a seizure. How, I don't know, but my friendo can do it when necessary, but it usually means recovery is worse/takes longer.   
> -It's actually apparently normal to have multiple seizures in a row??? it's only happened like, once with my friend, and it scared the shit out of me lol. Big seizures tend to have follow up seizures afterwards. Especially when the seizures were stopped artificially and not naturally. 
> 
> Yes, Spy is definitely going to have a Super shitty recovery. It's gonna suck ass lol

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be mentioning proper seizure "etiquette" in bits and tidbits throughout the story! Let me know what y'all think and if you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them, with my friend fact checking for me!


End file.
